Chihuahua leaving moist messages

DEAR JOAN: I have a problem that I hope you, your experts or readers may be able to help me with.

I've had a foster dog since August. She is a very sweet 9-year-old Chihuahua mix. She is house-trained and very well behaved. Not shaky or yippy. The problem is this. She has become very attached to me. When she doesn't get the attention she thinks she deserves, she pees in the hall.

I admit I have spoiled her rotten because she's just so darn cute, but when I go take a shower, she pees; if I go outside without her, she pees; if I go visit the neighbors, she pees.

She's outside when I'm at work, but is very safe and she doesn't seem to mind. She has had hours to pee so I know she doesn't have to go but she does anyway.

Figs hang from a fig tree. (Jim Gensheimer/San Jose Mercury News.)

I have put those little puddle pads where she goes, but she'll go right next to them. I can't cover my whole house with them.

Anne Freitas

Tracy

DEAR ANNE: Your first step should be a visit to the veterinarian, just to make sure there isn't something else going on. If she gets a clean bill of health, then you'll need to address the psychology of the matter.

Dogs most often pee indoors for two reasons: They are showing appeasement or they are suffering from separation anxiety. It sounds like your Chi has a serious case of the latter.

Advertisement

I recently received a wonderful book, "Decoding Your Dog," (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $27) by Debra F. Horwitz, John Ciribassi and Steve Dale. Horwitz and Ciribassi are vets and animal behaviorists; Dale is a syndicated pet journalist.

Chapter 11 of the book is devoted to separation anxiety, and let me relieve a bit of your anxiety. Spoiling your dog, letting her sleep in the bed with you, her breed -- none of those things typically blamed for the anxiety actually cause it, nor is she punishing you for not paying enough attention to her. It is pure fear of being left behind. Curing it will take a lot of work on your part.

It's far too complex to get into in this short space, so I'd recommend you pick up a copy of the book, talk to your vet and perhaps hire an expert to help you. It is curable with work and perhaps medication, so you don't have to live with wall-to-wall puddle pads.

DEAR JOAN: Unless I time it perfectly, when the fruit on my huge fig tree ripens something almost always beats me to it.

I had assumed birds were pecking holes in the figs. The holes are small, although sometimes as much as half the fruit has been eaten. I also suspect squirrels. After reading some of your columns, I'm wondering if it might be roof rats.

On a related subject, awhile ago I found that something had very carefully eaten the peel off several of my Meyer lemons while they were still hanging on the tree. Some were eaten partway, but in one instance, all of the peel was gone without piercing the white stuff between the fruit and the peel. It only happened once but was amazing to me. It seemed magical.

Ralph Hueston Kratz

Richmond

DEAR RALPH: The damage on your figs could be any or all of the creatures you suspect, including roof rats. Birds especially love the sweet figs, so I suspect most of it comes from them.

The missing lemon peels are definitely the work of rats. They prefer the rind over the lemon, however they will eat the inside of an orange and leave the empty peel on the tree.